Campus Notebook: Conference puts spotlight on transparency

Updated 5:04 pm, Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The University at Albany is hosting a conference on openness and transparency this week.

The conference has brought together 350 global experts on technology and government innovation from 62 countries. The conference is billed as an opportunity to share the latest research and innovations in smart cities, open government, big data, transparency and citizen services. The goal is to spotlight the role "openness plays in fostering transparency, participation and accountability in government," according to the school.

And yet, two of the keynote speakers, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, lead institutions that have been sued recently by the Times Union for illegally withholding public information. Both entities lost after years of fighting against what was clearly the public's right to know and were forced by the courts to turn over information to the paper and to pay the Times Union's legal fees.

The city of Albany refused to turn over parking tickets records in 2008, which my colleague, Brendan Lyons, requested after he reported on the longtime practice of issuing tickets that didn't have a fine — so-called ghost tickets — on private vehicles of city police, spouses, friends and city-employed civilians that sported a bull's-eye sticker.

These stickers were placed on windshields so vehicles could park on city streets without fines or penalties. A court forced the city to comply with Freedom of Information Law in that case.

In SUNY's case, the Research Foundation of the State University of New York was sued by the Times Union for refusing to comply with the state's Freedom of Information Law after officials tried to hide a no-show job. In a settlement with the Hearst Corporation, which owns the newspaper, the foundation gave up its appeal of a state Supreme Court decision that had ordered the release of records the Times Union had sought in 2009. Citing FOIL, the Times Union had requested signed time sheets of Susan Bruno, who was then a foundation employee who rarely came by the office. She is the eldest daughter of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

It's important to note that Zimpher was not chancellor at the time of the no-show job in question and has spearheaded more openness at the Research Foundation. The lawsuit against SUNY was settled after Zimpher became chancellor.

Still, on the conference's opening day, the state comptroller released an audit blasting $4 million in questionable spending at the Research Foundation and promised a deeper look at such items as a $28,000 bar tab on the chancellor's account (which SUNY contends was to entertain constituents).

The fraternity and sorority system at Union College is embroiled in a bit of controversy right now. A fraternity was penalized from campus after some alumni brought in kegs and they were caught having a party. Even a former administrator questions the harsh actions of the school in removing the fraternity's campus space temporarily as a punishment. The school's newspaper, The Concordiensis, has done a fine job of covering it extensively. From an outsider's perspective, it appears that students are angry about an administration cracking down on frat house shenanigans.

But some of the student comments, most anonymous, from fraternity supporters are a bit overblown, to say the least. Here are a few choice nuggets from students and alumni defending the rights of frat houses, which apparently need to serve alcohol to reduce hospital visits:

"Not having beer at fraternity parties simply causes kids to over drink in their dorm rooms with hard liquor because they are afraid of being found with a few beer cans. A bottle of liquor is way easier to hide and the new policy is only causing an increase in hospital transports."

"I'm starting to feel the same way about the Union administrators as I do Congress. Impose term limits and wash them all out. Both are equally ineffectual."